Play the book show and tell

[happyhoix]

1) what was the book you absolutely loved but no one you recommended it to like it/could get through it - and why did you think it was great/why did they hate it? 
2) What extremely popular book that everyone raved about did you hate, and why? 

I’ll start: 1) An Instance of the Fingerpost by Ian Pears. It takes place in England in the 1660, after King Charles II has been restored to the throne. The central plot is that a fellow from New College in Oxford has been found dead and a young woman is accused of his murder.  Why I loved it - the book is four different parts, each part told by four very different and unrelated characters, and you see the story through their four perspectives. Why I liked it - the author does a fantastic job writing each of the four parts in four different voices. He is also able to capture the fragmented narrative of the character with a mental health problem. Everyone I let borrow it returned it to me, unable to get past the first quarter of the book. They thought it was boring, but what I loved about the book was the subtle clues the writer left in each of the four stories. None of them knew the whole story, but all of them knew pieces of it, and if you paid attention, you could put all the pieces together and understand what really happened. 

2) I have a tie for most popular book everyone but me seemed to love - The Notebook by Nicolas Sparks. I can’t even remember the plot, I blocked everything about it from my mind. First and last time I picked a book to read based on how many people in the media gushed over it. Now I read the blurb on the book and put it back if it’s a romance. The tie - The DaVinci Code by Dan Brown. Again, everywhere I looked, people raved about it. Sorry, it was just stupid. People surviving absolutely unsurvivable things - at one point, someone fell out of a helicopter very high up in the air and was fine because he fell into a river. Really? From that height it would have been like hitting concrete. Tried the next Dan Brown book, but nope. 

[Cheesy FL-Vol]

I can’t think of a #1

#2: Dune. My dad and oldest brother raved about it. I force fed it to myself but I just hated it.

Also #2: The Old Man and the Sea. I read everything my kids had for assigned reading. I do not remember reading it when I was in school. B-O-R-I-N-G.

[flamingo]

I’m not sure about #1. I’ll have to go back and look at my kindle to see what I recommended to DH that he didn’t like.

#2 - where the crawdads sing. I gave up half way through. I thought it was just awful. And I couldn’t make it through the handmaids tale either. Tho that may have been bc I tried to listen to it and the narrator wasn’t doing it for me.

[saveinla]

happyhoix -

#1 I have so many favorites - its hard to choose. 

I agree with both of your books on #2. I hated both and did not finish either of them.

[swamp]

Catcher in the Rye.  Timeless story of teen angst. 

50 Shades of Gray.  It’s stupid.  If the dude was poor and lived in a trailer park it would be rape 

[NomoreDramaQ1015]

1. Great Gatsby. I think it's because we had to read it in HS. I didn't get it. It was a slog in HS.

I think it is a book that is better after.some life experience. I understand the social commentary better.



2. Life of Pi. The only thing I can say is now people will quit bugging me about reading it.

No no I understood the book just fine thank you I don't need you to explain. Still don't like it. Not liking a book doesn't automatically mean I need educated and suddenly I'll love it.

[NomoreDramaQ1015]

Jun 5, 2024 19:26:03 GMT -5 Cheesy FL-Vol said:

I can’t think of a #1

#2: Dune. My dad and oldest brother raved about it. I force fed it to myself but I just hated it.

Also #2: The Old Man and the Sea. I read everything my kids had for assigned reading. I do not remember reading it when I was in school. B-O-R-I-N-G.

One of my classmates picked Old Man and the sea for his English paper thinking it'd be easy because it's short.

He came storming in one day, threw the book on his desk and goes "God no wonder the author killed himself!"

Our teacher told him serves him right for picking a book solely based on page count. She tried to warn him.😅

[NomoreDramaQ1015]

Another #2 The Hobbit.

I quit by page 90. So much freaking walking!

[wvugurl26]

Not sure about a #1.

#2 The Hobbit. I've tried like 5 times to read that stupid book. My copy shows it. I just can't finish it.

I did finish 50 Shades of Grey and Life of Pi. Not my favorites but I finished.

[NastyWoman]

The book I can't finish and I have tried many, many times is The Brothers Karamazov. 

I even gave my copy away at one point only to have DS1 very enthusiastically telling me a few years later he had found the "perfect book" for me. I was going to love it!

For obvious reasons I want to be cremated - otherwise that monster would follow me into my grave!

[Cheesy FL-Vol]

Jun 5, 2024 22:28:20 GMT -5 NomoreDramaQ1015 said:

Another #2 The Hobbit.

I quit by page 90. So much freaking walking!

I confess that I love The Hobbit. I got bored with the trilogy that came after.

When I was a kid, my parents would read aloud on Sundays usually 2 or 3 chapters from a variety of genres. The artist brother that passed away last summer was always sketching during each reading, putting down on paper what he saw in his minds eye. I remember his sketches from The Hobbit seemed spot-on to what I was imagining.

[NoNamePerson]

I loved Confederacy of Dunces but no one I recommended it too liked it. 

Will have to give the other questions in OP some thought.

If a book doesn’t grab me forty pages in I put it down. So really never finish something everybody might like if that makes sense

[happyhoix]

Jun 5, 2024 20:33:01 GMT -5 flamingo said:

I’m not sure about #1. I’ll have to go back and look at my kindle to see what I recommended to DH that he didn’t like.

#2 - where the crawdads sing. I gave up half way through. I thought it was just awful. And I couldn’t make it through the handmaids tale either. Tho that may have been bc I tried to listen to it and the narrator wasn’t doing it for me.

HATED the crawfad book. HATED. My book club read it and I was the only person who didn’t like it.

That author never lived in a shack in a swamp in a hot place. The reptiles and insects infesting her shack would have been a constant nightmare.

[seriousthistime]

#1 -- I rarely recommend a book, and in book groups when I make a suggestion it's a new read for most everyone in the group.

#2 -- I'm with you on the Crawdad book.  I was the only person in the group who didn't like it.  The person who recommended it said it rekindled her love of reading, which had diminished over the past few years.  To each their own, I guess. 

[Knee Deep in Water Chloe]

2) Twilight. Bad writing.

[resolution]

1: Path of Ascension: The story is set in a future fantasy world where people gain a skill at their coming of age. It follows a young man who receives an undesirable skill as he makes his way through life and turns the undesirable skill into something very powerful. I like the protagonist, the decent relationships and sense of community between characters, and the complex world building as the larger universe is gradually introduced. It is a web serial, so I read all the books in the series that are published on Kindle Unlimited and I still read the new chapters that are posted weekly on Royal Road.

My friends that I recommended it to found contradictions in the plot that I don't think are contradictory. They thought that the chances of character death are too low, and that the higher ranking characters that are introduced were too unprotected. 

2. Wheel of Time: This is my husband's favorite book series. I made it through maybe the first 5 books but dropped it because I didn't like the way all the female characters were portrayed. I drop a lot of older fantasy/scifi books because they were written by men that don't know how to portray women as people, instead they are just caricatures that are shallow and bitchy to drive the plot along.

[Cheesy FL-Vol]

Jun 6, 2024 10:02:20 GMT -5 resolution said:

1: Path of Ascension: The story is set in a future fantasy world where people gain a skill at their coming of age. It follows a young man who receives an undesirable skill as he makes his way through life and turns the undesirable skill into something very powerful. I like the protagonist, the decent relationships and sense of community between characters, and the complex world building as the larger universe is gradually introduced. It is a web serial, so I read all the books in the series that are published on Kindle Unlimited and I still read the new chapters that are posted weekly on Royal Road.

My friends that I recommended it to found contradictions in the plot that I don't think are contradictory. They thought that the chances of character death are too low, and that the higher ranking characters that are introduced were too unprotected. 

2. Wheel of Time: This is my husband's favorite book series. I made it through maybe the first 5 books but dropped it because I didn't like the way all the female characters were portrayed. I drop a lot of older fantasy/scifi books because they were written by men that don't know how to portray women as people, instead they are just caricatures that are shallow and bitchy to drive the plot along.

you stopped about where I did. My younger brother raved about it. I found it...interminable.

[happyhoix]

Jun 5, 2024 22:22:48 GMT -5 NomoreDramaQ1015 said:

1. Great Gatsby. I think it's because we had to read it in HS. I didn't get it. It was a slog in HS.

I think it is a book that is better after.some life experience. I understand the social commentary better.



2. Life of Pi. The only thing I can say is now people will quit bugging me about reading it.

No no I understood the book just fine thank you I don't need you to explain. Still don't like it. Not liking a book doesn't automatically mean I need educated and suddenly I'll love it.

I read great Gatsby in HS and was meh about it. Didn’t really like any of them. But the reread it in my 50s and had a totally different take on it. Still not a favorite book but I had sympathy for the characters this time. Funny how age can change your perspective.

[nidena]

I don't have a #1.

For #2: Eat, Pray, Love; Twilight; and 50 Shades of Crap are three that come to mind.

[Knee Deep in Water Chloe]

Jun 6, 2024 4:31:51 GMT -5 Cheesy FL-Vol said:

Jun 5, 2024 22:28:20 GMT -5 NomoreDramaQ1015 said:

Another #2 The Hobbit.

I quit by page 90. So much freaking walking!

I confess that I love The Hobbit. I got bored with the trilogy that came after.

When I was a kid, my parents would read aloud on Sundays usually 2 or 3 chapters from a variety of genres. The artist brother that passed away last summer was always sketching during each reading, putting down on paper what he saw in his minds eye. I remember his sketches from The Hobbit seemed spot-on to what I was imagining.

DH has five copies of it. And quotes it regularly. 

[resolution]

Jun 6, 2024 11:23:40 GMT -5 happyhoix said:

I read great Gatsby in HS and was meh about it. Didn’t really like any of them. But the reread it in my 50s and had a totally different take on it. Still not a favorite book but I had sympathy for the characters this time. Funny how age can change your perspective.

I had a similar experience with Crime and Punishment. It was torturously boring having to read it for class in high school, but I re-read it in my 30s and it stuck me as absolute genius because the main character's thought processes made me recognize my crazy ex boyfriend. It was so perfect it was terrifying.

[happyhoix]

Jun 6, 2024 12:26:56 GMT -5 resolution said:

Jun 6, 2024 11:23:40 GMT -5 happyhoix said:

I read great Gatsby in HS and was meh about it. Didn’t really like any of them. But the reread it in my 50s and had a totally different take on it. Still not a favorite book but I had sympathy for the characters this time. Funny how age can change your perspective.

I had a similar experience with Crime and Punishment. It was torturously boring having to read it for class in high school, but I re-read it in my 30s and it stuck me as absolute genius because the main character's thought processes made me recognize my crazy ex boyfriend. It was so perfect it was terrifying.

A friend of mine at work recommended Infinite Jest. It’s the size of a phone book - and not for a small town, one of the old school big city phone books. I started it and tried to plow through - it’s not that the book is bad, it’s just got a lot of characters, and the writer jumps about a lot. I had trouble keeping track with who was who. Some of them had nicknames and regular names that he switched between, and there was a mysterious woman who kept popping up in different story lines. I petered out about halfway through. I’m saving it for when I’m retired and can spend a couple hours a day reading it - and I also found an online website that annotates every line of the book to help you keep track of everything. Hopefully I’ll finish it the next time. 

[Spellbound454]

50 shades of Grey..... I skipped all the sex stuff with a sort of "read-one-you've-read-them-all" attitude .... and what was left was pretty poor. Also it bugged me that she thought his abuse was OK just because he had money and a helicopter etc. What on earth are we teaching our girls?

Did read, and enjoyed Dune, then saw the film and it was nothing like I had imaged.

Lord of the Rings, the travels through the mines was so long that I skipped it..... then it was "huh, what do you mean Gandalf is dead".... and tried to fish through to find out what has happened to him.

Read Wuthering Heights one summer holiday and loved it. Its so beautifully written. Don't know anyone who has read it so probably doesn't have wide appeal.

[happyhoix]

Jun 9, 2024 9:54:08 GMT -5 Spellbound454 said:

50 shades of Grey..... I skipped all the sex stuff with a sort of "read-one-you've-read-them-all" attitude .... and what was left was pretty poor. Also it bugged me that she thought his abuse was OK just because he had money and a helicopter etc. What on earth are we teaching our girls?

Did read, and enjoyed Dune, then saw the film and it was nothing like I had imaged.

Lord of the Rings, the travels through the mines was so long that I skipped it..... then it was "huh, what do you mean Gandalf is dead".... and tried to fish through to find out what has happened to him.

Read Wuthering Heights one summer holiday and loved it. Its so beautifully written. Don't know anyone who has read it so probably doesn't have wide appeal.

I read it and liked it and I’m not a romance fan. Liked the ghost clawing at the window.

[Cheesy FL-Vol]

Jun 9, 2024 9:54:08 GMT -5 Spellbound454 said:

50 shades of Grey..... I skipped all the sex stuff with a sort of "read-one-you've-read-them-all" attitude .... and what was left was pretty poor. Also it bugged me that she thought his abuse was OK just because he had money and a helicopter etc. What on earth are we teaching our girls?

Did read, and enjoyed Dune, then saw the film and it was nothing like I had imaged.

Lord of the Rings, the travels through the mines was so long that I skipped it..... then it was "huh, what do you mean Gandalf is dead".... and tried to fish through to find out what has happened to him.

Read Wuthering Heights one summer holiday and loved it. Its so beautifully written. Don't know anyone who has read it so probably doesn't have wide appeal.

I picked up a copy of Wuthering Heights several years ago. You just reminded me that I haven’t read it yet. The only time I have read it was in comic format when I was a kid. I do not remember the story line at all. I just pulled it off the shelf to remind myself to read it. 😊

ETA: Emily Bronte was 29 when this was first published. She was 30 when she died.

[movingforward]

I couldn't get past the first few chapters of 50 Shades of stupid. Two most unlikable characters ever.

I absolutely hated Men are From Mars, Women are From Venus. I threw the book across the room at one point where the author said (and these are far from exact words but my summation) that women need to essentially play to the male ego, and uses a man being lost as an example. Said women shouldn't point out that the man is lost and say something like we wouldn't have seen this beautiful sunset if we didn't get lost. Seriously, make me vomit...I read it way back when it was the "in thing." I thought it was complete crap.